


Witness To Devastation

by Val_Creative



Series: Kinktober/Whumptober/Goretober 2020 [19]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Adults, Ass Play, Badass Katara (Avatar), Banter, Blood and Violence, Choking, Cock Warming, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Flashbacks, Fluff, Goretober, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Kinktober, Kinktober 2020, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Past Character Death, Past Torture, Playful Sex, Polyamory, Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Romance, Survivor Guilt, Time Skips, Vaginal Sex, Vomiting, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:09:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27112417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: After a traumatic incident, Katara explains to Zuko what happened to her and Aang many years ago.
Relationships: Aang/Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Kinktober/Whumptober/Goretober 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949473
Comments: 7
Kudos: 31
Collections: Kinktober 2020, Whumptober 2020





	Witness To Devastation

**Author's Note:**

> So a long while back ago I had thoughts about waterbending but with actual literal blood on the ground and did a Tumblr post and then plotted out exactly what I wanted to do. I finally wrote it out recently and I wanted to post this. It's intense. BUT ANYWAY YES. This is my first time attempting to write Katara and Zuko and Aang all together! Hope you guys like it.

*

Morning doesn't feel right without Aang hugged against her.

Katara gradually fades from her sweet, numbing dreams, tensing and moaning softly. She's full. Her inner muscles tenses around the semi-erect length of Aang's cock deep inside her. Keeping them warm overnight. Katara's mouth twitches up a bit.

The cot shifts under her, its wood frame creaking. Katara cranes her neck, glimpsing a solemn-looking Zuko tugging on a robe. His eyebrows, dark and bushy from sleep, furrow. He's on Aang's opposite side. Katara eyes him stretching his arms above him, the lustrously red silk wrinkling. Zuko loosens his pale and broad shoulders, clenching them, as he noiselessly rises to his feet.

_ "Whrr'yu… going…?" _

Zuko whirls on his heel, listening for the direction of Katara's mumble. Without the lantern-light on, it's harder. 

"I'll meet you at the Governor's lakeside villa," he explains, keeping his voice low and stern. "They're set to return before dawn. I'll introduce us."

Katara frowns, tempted to lift herself out of the circle of her husband's arms.

"Why don't we all go like we planned?" she asks, mumbling a little louder. "Shouldn't Aang be there?"

"Governor Cong is still weary of the Avatar after my father's imprisonment," Zuko admits, grimacing as if embarrassed. "He was considered a Fire Nation loyalist when Lord Ozai was crowned. We should approach this strategically from here on out."

"Zuko…"

She doesn't move as Zuko joins her on the other side of the cot, pressing a knee into the owl goose-feather padding and hoists himself closer. Katara frowns deeper, but relaxes against Zuko's palm cupping the side of her face. "Let me talk to him," Zuko insists softly. "I remember him. I remember him being kind to me even after my banishment. He'll remember me, too."

Katara sighs, giving up the argument and nodding. They don't have a choice, do they?

Zuko leans over her, nodding back, kissing the top of Aang's bald head and then kissing Katara's brow.

His lips feel chapped and hot.

"Besides," Zuko whispers, smirking good-naturedly and lowering his hand right down to Katara's mound. Every part of her as naked as him and Aang. Zuko's thumb pushes up against her clitoris, grinding down, and two of his fingers prod the moistened gap of flesh between her holding Aang's cock inside. "I have a feeling that you both could manage without me."

She hisses out Zuko's name, half-swatting him, half-groaning for more. Zuko's chuckle disappears down the hall.

Aang stirs.

"… Katara?"

"Shh, it's alright," Katara hushes him, grasping Aang's hand and draping him over her waist. "I'm right here, Aang." She doesn't know what compels her do this, but Katara squeezes firmly down on her husband, timing it with the cant of her hips.

Aang's mouth opens up, saliva-wet, nudging under Katara's ear.

Katara guides his hand under her thigh, squeezing and thrusting back on him, waiting for him to slowly come to his senses. He lifts her leg, plunging into her as they lay on their sides, gaining momentum until Katara can feel him hardening and throbbing. It's good. So deep and _good_. She wanted Zuko like with Aang, riding him, breathing so raggedly that it sounded like sobbing.

Aang turned to her, steadied by Zuko and Katara clutching his hips and sides, bouncing himself over Zuko's face. Zuko's tongue dragged in and out of Aang's sensitive rim and filling him so deeply like Zuko filled inside Katara, like Aang fills inside her now.

They love each other. Maybe it's a heedless arrangement they've fell in.

But worth it.

*

Shuhon Island blooms with morning's light.

They've reached another settlement within it, and to everyone's relief—Governor Cong welcomes Zuko. He grants the Avatar and Fire Lord Zuko, as well as Master Katara, the full and unconditional hospitality of his city. They can come and go.

Katara knows they've only peaked in the diplomatic negotiations, but it can wait. She's not rushing Zuko's plan.

Up ahead, walking into the main road, Aang and Zuko remain side-by-side, their hands brushing. Aang presents out a fire gummy from his canvas drawstring bag, beaming with self-satisfaction. He holds it up to Zuko's lips.

Zuko allows Aang to slip it past his teeth, chewing and grinning when Aang's mouth pecks his.

A troop of Fire Nation children play by the stone-statue fountain of Avatar Roku, clapping their hands happily and singsonging. Katara and Aang look at them within a second late of each other. The Fire Nation uniform, Katara realizes. 

Her stomach drops. 

Brown pants. Black and red vests. Red sashes with gilded insignias of the Fire Nation school tied to their middles.

Katara shuts her eyes tightly, clapping over her mouth. Nausea wells.

She can still hear the high-pitched and endless screams in her _worst_ nightmares.

_She hears them_ —Katara reopens her eyes, witnessing as the children scream out in hysterics, backing away.

They've been looking at _Aang_.

Aang convulses, going utterly limp, with a frantic Zuko yelling for Katara and catching him. She races to them. Aang's eyes half-lidded. He seems to be choking on _nothing_. "Zuko, help me with him," Katara orders, prying open Aang's mouth to inspect it. She can't locate an obstruction. The choking becomes severe from Aang's lips, gurgling, brightening red his features.

Katara motions to her hip-pouch, summoning a faintly glowing mass of healing water. She presses it against Aang's neck, concentrating, gritting her teeth. Zuko's hands cradle his head. Aang finally inhales, exhaling a ton of sickly pale fluid.

Zuko turns him, coaxing Aang by rubbing his back. He lets a wide-eyed and sweating Aang gasp through the vomiting fit.

Relief crumples her. Katara's breathing wrings out small sobs.

*

"What happened?"

They carry Aang to the Governor's villa, letting another healer examine him alongside Katara. He's out cold. Zuko has been pacing, stealing glances between Aang, pale-faced and weakened and moaning occasionally, and Katara sitting by him.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Zuko points out. His hands push over his hairline. "Not from Aang."

She shakes her head, avoiding Zuko's eyes on her.

"What did he see, Katara?"

_ On Ji trembles on the ground, unable to cry from the shock. Half of her face burnt a crusty, fleshy black. Her eye melted runny. _

"I can't…" Katara says tearfully, hauling herself up and ducking around Zuko.

He chases her outside the door, sliding it shut for privacy. Zuko's fingers grip hers. She's led away towards the kitchens where it's empty. Zuko finds a pot and clean water, boiling it for tea. Katara sits herself on a stool, her head hanging low.

"I know when… when I wasn't the man I am now… you traveled with Aang, and with Sokka and Toph. You all went through things I couldn't possibly understand because I wasn't there. That doesn't bother me. I just think about it sometimes." Katara murmurs out Zuko's name, but he kneels to her, clutching Katara's knee. "Let me try to _understand_ what happened."

Katara takes a deep breath, wiping off her cheeks and accepting the jasmine tea from Zuko. Iroh's lessons about brewing seems to have finally paid off. The tea is deliciously flavored and warm and pleasant. She sips.

"We were hiding in Fire Nation caves before the eclipse," Katara tells him, disregarding the sense of helplessness and melancholy building inside her. "I remember Toph used to call what we were doing _cave-hopping_. Aang grew out his hair so no one could know he was the Avatar while we got Fire Nation disguises. He decided to attend a Fire Nation school on the eastern side."

Zuko's mouth quirks down. "Why would he do that?"

"He wanted to give them hope." Katara smiles close-lipped, her blue eyes swimming like the waters of the lake outside the Governor's metal-ornate windows. "He wanted the other kids to learn how to dance and to think freely for themselves."

"Right," Zuko says, now grinning at the thought. "That sounds like Aang."

"Something…"

"Something terrible happened, Zuko."

_ They escape in the cave's darkness, laughing and cheering and gleefully babbling about the success of the dance party. That's when Katara notices the screaming from behind her in the distance. Real and terrified screams. _

"Aang said he would go back if the other kids were in danger. I went with him. I heard Toph and Sokka follow."

_ Toph brought down the cave-wall they vanished into. She looked frightened. Katara didn't know why at first. All that Katara could see was bright, raging fire. Movement, quick and ferocious, within the flames. Smoke permeates Katara's nose. _

_ She smells it before Katara's eyes focus on a specific area of the cave. It's the smell of raw meat cooking. _

"I heard…" Katara's voice quivers. "I heard the Headmaster say they were cleansing their impurities for the Fire Nation… I saw them, Zuko. I couldn't tell whether or not those Fire Nation kids survived. Some were crying on the ground, and some didn't."

Zuko's expression hardens.

"Uncle Iroh didn't tell me until I was older. He said he was ashamed of what his brother did. I didn't want to believe it… but I have to. I have to face who Fire Lord Ozai really was," he murmurs. "It was considered for the good of our Nation to cut out the bad seeds. Put them down before they could sprout." Katara blinks out more tears. "They said if their parents would either accept what's good for the Fire Nation or they would be named dissenters against the Fire Lord's rule. The punishment was fatal."

_ Aang calls out for On Ji, kneeling down. Her ash-dusted hands knuckle the charred remains of Shoji's forearm. _

_ Two of the Fire Nation kids writhe and shriek in the hands of soldiers dragging them out. The helms gleams in the firelight. Katara's mouth slackens. They protected Aang when they didn't have to. They were the promise of a world Aang fought for. _

Katara's fingertips press over her wet eyelids.

"I did bloodbending, Zuko."

"You needed to protect yourself and Aang," Zuko reaffirms, placing away her teacup and confused when she looks at him.

The light from Katara's blue eyes deadens.

"No… it wasn't Bloodbending," she speaks up. "I didn't meet Hama yet. It was waterbending, but… I…"

_ Blood gleams, too. _

_ All over the cave's floor. _

"I had to…"

_ Katara materializes a stream of blood, whipping it against the heads of the Fire Nation soldiers. Knocking off their helms. She can't think. Can't feel. Blood is everywhere. Blood is made of water. So, Katara bends it, forming icicles and blades to attack. _

_ They flee. _

"Zuko, I had to…"

_ The Headmaster crawls away from her, several of Katara's blood-icicles embedded in his back. He deserves this, and worse, Katara's mind whispers. Heavy with darkness. He deserves it all to have his life ended for killing innocents. _

_ Aang bellows out Katara's name. _

_ His face contorts, dripping with someone else's red blood and sweat and Aang's tears. He can hardly keep upright under the weight of grief. Fear courses through Katara, pin-pricking her heart. She lowers her arm, letting the torrent of blood cascade. _

_ It's her. It's her that Aang is truly afraid of like this. _

"Aang looked me… and I saw myself in him," Katara whispers. "I saw what I looked like whenever Aang went into the Avatar State. His pain and his rage. But I was the one acting on it. He was the one trying to stop me from making a mistake."

Zuko pulls her from the stool, grim-faced. He listens intently.

"I was so angry. I was angry at the Fire Nation and I was angry with myself for giving into their horrors."

"Aang brought you back," Zuko concludes. One of his fingers brushes over Katara's cheek, dabbing off a tear. "That's the kind of person he is. I know I can't undo what's happened to you and Aang… but I'm glad you told me. I want to know everything."

Katara moves in closer, hugging Zuko, dropping her face against the linen of his shirt.

A part of her doesn't regret it.

She can't.

Katara regrets Aang being a witness to her devastation. That much is certain.

*

**Author's Note:**

> Kinktober 2020 prompt(s): **Cockwarming**  
>  Whumptober 2020 prompt(s): **Grief, Survivor's Guilt**  
>  Goretober 2020 prompt(s): **Choking & Vomiting**


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